10 Apr 2016
Most of my family are foodies. Although one prefers his food delivered in a cardboard box on two wheels. We discuss food most days, whether planning, shopping or eating; we are all talking about food. My mother is a great cook and daughter Charlotte is following in the family tradition of cooking from scratch; we swap recipes and are always sending each other links to food we’ve seen online. Instagram and Pinterest are guaranteed to give you food envy.
I’ve got cupboards literally groaning with cook books, some ranging back to the 70s when I first started cooking, right through to the latest must have healthy eating tome. I have piles of cuttings taken from magazines and weekend supplements, Waitrose Kitchen piled up beside the sofa and I’ve seen every Bake Off and MasterChef of the series. But even the gorgeous Mary Berry and the cheeky Paul Hollywood won’t drag me off the sofa and into the kitchen.
I am just so uninspired to cook. I’ve got to the stage where I’m happy bashing out the usual staples, meals I know everyone will eat, probably because they’ve eaten them for the last umpteen years. Shepherd’s Pie, Chicken Casserole and Spaghetti Bolognese have been on the menu for as long as I can remember, I can practically make them blindfold.
Whenever I think I’ll step out of the comfort (eating) zone and be more adventurous something stops me. Either missing ingredients or not enough time, someone decides they don’t want supper after all and my favourite, the lure of a good restaurant. I can be talked out of cooking in an instant.
When Rob Hobson tweeted a photograph last week of Malaysian Chicken Salad, I decided it was time to get my act together and plan a new meal for the weekend. There was no time for shopping during the week so I ordered online making sure to add all the ingredients to the virtual basket. This time I wouldn’t be caught out not having that vital spice or herb. Raw peanuts were out of stock, oh well I could easily pick those up in the high street couldn’t I? Not as easily as you would imagine. Then I discovered I hadn’t scrolled to the second page and needed lemongrass for the dressing, another trip to the high street. Sunday morning while reading through the recipe I realised I’d forgotten to order beansprouts, surely they wouldn’t be hard to find. Again harder than you might think but it did mean I added an extra two miles to the morning walk – yummy more calories!
I started to chop, slice, julienne and blend, I created more mess than a MasterChef final and produced a bowl of Asian slaw to feed an army. Sometime later we sat down to a healthy and tasty meal. It was gone in minutes; I wish I could say the same for the clearing up, it took as long if not longer than the preparation. And this is why I’m not longer inspired to cook.
I love the idea of cooking, the recipes, the anticipation; I especially love the end result but, what I can’t stand is the bit that goes on beforehand, all the prep and clearing up afterwards, it just takes so blooming long.
